Local bluegrass band Cornbread is set to take the Ghost Ranch Saloon stage at 10:30 p.m. today for a free show. Band members shown here are Denton Turner, from left, Scott Kirton, Jay Roemer and Paul Geppert. John Huge joins the band today on dobro.

Local bluegrass bands play free show today

3Wire and Cornbread set to take stage at Ghost Ranch Saloon

Bluegrass-based band 3Wire plays a free show at 8 p.m. today at Ghost Ranch Saloon. The band is, from left, Bob Shaffer, Paul Geppert and Dave Hanley. Local bluegrass group Cornbread goes on at 10:30 p.m.

If you go

What: 3Wire and Cornbread

When: 8 p.m. today

Where: Ghost Ranch Saloon, 56 Seventh St.

Cost: Free

Call: 879-9898

Steamboat Springs  About 10 years ago, local musicians Paul Geppert and Dave Hanley started playing open mic sets together at Off the Beaten Path Bookstore.

Then co-workers, the two men discovered they had common musical interests. They played regular open mic sets and recruited a bass player, landing on their current lineup with Bob Shaffer on bass about a year later.

At 8 p.m. today at Ghost Ranch Saloon, Geppert and Hanley will perform in a reinvented version of the building that first hosted them 10 years ago. Their band, 3Wire, is one of two local acts with bluegrass influences scheduled to play the free show. Bluegrass band Co

rnbread is scheduled to play at 10:30 p.m.

3Wire has been able to keep making music for a decade because its musicians are easygoing, Geppert said.

“We’re three really good friends. We all live on the same block of Hill Street, and we’ve been playing music together for 10 years. It’s unusual for a band to stay together for that long,” he said.

3Wire is Geppert on guitar, mandolin and vocals; Hanley on banjo, guitar and vocals; and Shaffer on bass and vocals. Cornbread is Geppert on mandolin, Jay Roemer on guitar, John Huge on dobro, Scott Kirton on banjo and Denton Turner on bass.

Cornbread, which formed about a year ago and has had a few lineup changes, plays a more “hard-driving, traditional” style of bluegrass music, Geppert said. 3Wire mixes it up, offering tastes of rock ’n’ roll, newgrass and country. Both bands have original material in addition to a wide range of traditional or cover tunes.

“For me, it’s exciting that I’ve been with a band for 10 years, but I’m also getting to see this new band take on a life of its own and develop,” Geppert said.

By starting the show at 8 p.m. and putting the band with a few younger members on later in the night, Geppert said he hopes to draw a diverse set of music lovers to today’s show.